Bomber Command Statistics

In October 2008, it was announced that Bomber Commandwas finally going to have a memorial constructed to remember those who fought for Bomber Command and died, were wounded or became a prisoner-of-war. The memorial will be placed in Regent’s Park, London.

The lack of recognition as to what Bomber Command had done during World War Two compelled ‘Bomber’ Harris to emigrate to South Africa. While Winston Churchill had acknowledged most parts of the military at the end of the war, he failed to mention Bomber Command.

During World War Two, Bomber Command flew 364,514 sorties.

297,663 of these were flown at night.

For every 100 men who flew with Bomber Command, 56 were killed in the air or died of wounds received during a sortie.

12 out of every 100 men ended up as a prisoner-of-war.

14 out of every 100 survived being shot down.

Only 27% of all those in Bomber Command emerged from the war unscathed in any capacity; 73% suffered in some manner – a higher rate than for the UK’s infantry regiments during the war.

In all, 55,573 were killed with an average age of 22.

38,462 of those killed were British; 4,050 were Australians; 9,980 were Canadians and 1,703 were New Zealanders.